” When Dante Exum was inserted into the staring lineup four games ago I worried there might be an adverse effect on Derrick Favors’ game due the move. Through four games, the numbers show rather drastic ramifications via the Trey Burke bench effect.”

– Can Miles Plumlee still fit in Phoenix (from Joshua Riddell, BBall Breakdown):

” After a frustrating rookie season for Miles Plumlee, in which he appeared in only 15 games for the Indiana Pacers after being drafted with the 26th pick, he managed to find some reclamation after being jettisoned to the Phoenix Suns. Traded along with Gerald Green and a future first round pick in exchange for Luis Scola, Plumlee enjoyed a successful sophomore campaign that saw him start 80 games while averaging 11.8 points and 11.5 rebounds per 36 minutes, shooting 51.7% from the floor in just over 24 minutes per game.

This season, however, Plumlee has seen a decrease in both minutes played and production this season. With rumors swirling that he is available for a first round pick, why has he fallen out of favor so quickly in Phoenix?”

” The journey of Nate Tibbetts to the coaching ranks of the NBA sounds like a classic basketball story told time and again.

Being a coach was his destiny. The son of a high school coach in South Dakota, Tibbetts grew to play point guard at University of South Dakota.

“My Dad was the guy that I looked to all the time growing up,” Tibbetts said. “And I knew I wasn’t going to play overseas at the professional level so I got into coaching fairly quickly.”

And on the bench with the Trail Blazers, Tibbetts still gets a sweat on.

Recently, he played LaMarcus Aldridge in one-on-one as Aldridge tested the brace on his left thumb that has a torn radial collateral ligament.

But the journey from South Dakota to the NBA is not a common road. When Tibbetts started coaching back in 2001, the NBA D-League did not yet exist. He began his career at a liberal arts college, University of Sioux Falls, which was then an NAIA school.

But in 2005, Tibbetts matriculated to the D-League’s Sioux Falls Skyforce where he eventually became the head coach before the 2007-08 season. It was there in Sioux Falls that Tibbetts met Terry Stotts who was then the D-League’s coaching consultant.”